Idaho State University Researcher Coordinates Analysis of Body
Imprint That May Belong to a Sasquatch

Idaho State University Press
ReleaseWritten by: Glenn Alford

October 23, 2000

??????????? Pocatello – Dr. Jeff Meldrum, associate
professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University,
is a member of the scientific team examining a plaster cast of
what may be the first documented body imprint of a
Sasquatch.

??????????? The imprint of what appears to be a large
animal's left forearm, hip, thigh, and heel was discovered
Sept. 22 in a muddy wallow near Mt. Adams in southern Washington
state by a Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (www.BFRO.net) expedition in the
Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

??????????? The investigating team, including Meldrum; Dr.
Grover Krantz, retired physical anthropologist from Washington
State University; Dr. John Bindernagel, Canadian wildlife
biologist; John Green, retired Canadian journalist and author;
and Dr. Ron Brown, exotic animal handler and health care
administrator, all examined the cast and agreed that it cannot be
attributed to any commonly known Northwest animal and may
represent an unknown primate.

??????????? Meldrum, whose research includes comparative
primate anatomy and the emergence of human walking supervised the
careful cleaning of the cast, and will coordinate its analysis by
a scientific team. He first became actively interested in the
question of the existence of a North American ape after examining
fresh Sasquatch (popularly called Bigfoot) tracks in 1996.

??????????? “While not definitively proving the
existence of a species of North American ape, the cast
constitutes significant and compelling new evidence that will
hopefully stimulate further serious research and investigation
into the presence of these primates in the Northwest mountains
and elsewhere,” Meldrum said.

??????????? Dr. LeRoy Fish, a retired wildlife ecologist
from Triangles Lake, Ore., with a doctorate in zoology from
Washington State University; Derek Randles, a landscape architect
from Belfair, Wash.; and Richard Noll, a tooling metrologist from
Edmonds, Wash.; discovered and cast the partial body imprint
during the BFRO expedition.

??????????? More than 200 pounds of plaster were needed to
produce the 3-1/2 x 5-foot cast of the entire impression, which
was reinforced with researchers’ aluminum tent poles. Other
Sasquatch evidence documented by the BFRO expedition includes
voice recordings and indistinct 17-inch footprints.

??????????? Trace evidence attributed to Sasquatch is
usually footprints, but impressions of other body parts,
including hands, knuckles, and buttocks, have occasionally been
found. This unique instance of a partial body impression provides
further insights about this elusive ape species’ anatomy.
Preliminary measurements indicate its body dimensions are 40 to
50 percent greater than those of a six-foot tall human.

??????????? After the cast was cleaned, extensive
impressions of hair on the buttock and thigh surfaces and a
fringe of longer hair along the forearm were evident. Meldrum
identified what appear to be skin ridge patterns on the heel,
comparable to fingerprints, that are characteristic of
primates.

??????????? The ridge characteristics are consistent with
other examples from Sasquatch footprints Meldrum has studied in
collaboration with officer Jimmy Chilcutt, a latent fingerprint
examiner with the Conroe, Texas, Police Department. The anatomy
of the heel, ankle, and Achilles tendon are also distinct and
consistent with models of the Sasquatch foot derived by Meldrum
after examining hundreds of alleged Sasquatch footprints.

??????????? Hair samples collected at the scene and from the
cast itself and examined by Dr. Henner Fahrenbach, a biomedical
research scientist from Beaverton, Ore., were primarily of deer,
elk, coyote, and bear, as was expected since tracks in the wallow
were mostly of those animals. However, based on characteristics
matching those of otherwise indeterminate primate hairs collected
in association with other Sasquatch sightings, he identified a
single distinctly primate hair as “Sasquatch.”

??????????? Sasquatch is a species of North American ape
suspected to inhabit the mountainous forests of the Northwest.
Its existence remains controversial despite numerous eyewitness
sightings and the discovery of enormous footprints.

More information about the Skookum Cast can be found at the web
site for the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization: http://www.bfro.net